Audience flow is a term used in television broadcasting to refer to the carry over of an audience from one program to the next. Audience flow is used by networks to promote new shows (by scheduling a new show to follow a highly rated show in order to provide exposure to the new show); to attempt to increase ratings of one show by having it follow a highly rated show; to maintain an audience by running a series of similar shows during a time period (sometimes referred to as “block programming”), etc.
According to one report (see, “The future: Everything you know about media will change radically”, The Meyers Group, 1998, hereinafter the “Meyers Group Report”), broadcast television's ratings (based on 24 hour audience share) is eroding from an 82% level in 1975 to an estimated 28% level in 2005. This report suggests that the erosion is due to the increased number of channels that are available to the viewer with the advent of cable and satellite television. According to the increased number of channels and amount of programming available leads to increased levels of “channel surfing” and less control over the audience by the broadcasters. As stated by the report:                “The television season, audience “flow” and network exclusivity are outdated concepts. The are vestiges of 30-year-old network programming strategies that are no longer relevant . . . ”        And, the report concludes by stating:        “To remain competitive, networks must develop innovative yearlong and multinetwork original programming strategies. They must adapt to the reality that every half-hour, every night, every program has its own set of coordinates on the television map.”        
These conclusions were reached even before the market launch of the so-called personal television. Personal television, such as the Replay TV 2001, 2003 and 2004 personal television devices, allow a viewer to easily time-shift programming by selecting programming to be recorded for later viewing. Thus, a viewer may select to record all episodes of “Home Improvement”, all episodes of “Star Trek”, all political commentary programming, and all programming regarding cooking shows. The selected programming is recorded and may be viewed in any order or sequence desired by the viewer. Thus, these personal television devices may further disrupt audience flow.
Many broadcasters would prefer to be able to continue to benefit from audience flow.
Thus, what is needed is a method to provide for audience flow even with the advent of new technologies such as personal television.